Casadei Crowned Champion in Moscow

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Facing a field of 869 competitors from 30 countries, Luca Casadei from Italy has won Grand Prix Moscow, defeating Wenzel Krautmann from Germany in the finals.

Luca, who has affiliated with the Izzet guild, posted a 7-2 record during Day 1's sealed deck play, and then didn't lose another match in the draft rounds. Prior to this event, Luca had drafted M13 well over 200 times on Magic Online, and that experience paid off big time as he assembled a deadly blue-black deck with an exalted theme in the Top 8.

We've had a great weekend all around, and the hall has been brimming with excitement from the Russian competitors who were pumped to have a shot at Grand Prix glory in Russia. Two Russian players, Petr Kuznetsov and Roman Masaladzhiu, made it to the semifinals in their quest to keep the title in their home country, but in the end no one could get in the way of the Italian player.

Anatoly Chuhwichov

What was the best card in your Sealed Deck, what color combination did you play, and what was your record? 9-0 (three byes) with black-white. Mutilate was great!

What was the best card in your first draft deck, what color combination did you play, and what was your record? 2-1 with red-green. Rancor.

What was the best card in your second draft deck, what color combination did you play, and what was your record? One win with green-white, then two intentional draws. I won by sideboarding Naturalize.

What is your favorite card from Return to Ravnica that has been previewed so far?

Lotleth Troll

Roman Masaladzhiu

Age: 29 Hometown: Moscow, Russia Occupation: Lawyer Guild: Boros

Previous Magic accomplishments: Just everybody knows me!

What was the best card in your Sealed Deck, what color combination did you play, and what was your record? 8-1 with black-green. Thragtusk.

What was the best card in your first draft deck, what color combination did you play, and what was your record? 2-1 with black-white. Serra Angel.

What was the best card in your second draft deck, what color combination did you play, and what was your record? 2-0-1 with blue-red. Krenko, Mob Boss.

What is your favorite card from Return to Ravnica that has been previewed so far?

Detention Sphere

Quarterfinals - Hannes Kerem vs. Roman Masaladzhiu

by Tobi Henke

It's only the second Top 8 of Hannes Kerem's career, but his previous one came at the World Championship in 2008 which easily marked him as the most accomplished player in this Top 8. He had drafted a blue-green tempo deck, its highlights being the finishers Sleep and Predatory Rampage.

Hannes Kerem and Roman Masaladzhiu

Sitting across from him was Roman Masaladzhiu, the hometown hero. Throughout the day, whenever he was called to the feature match area an unbelievable cheer went through the crowd. Maybe even more, the crowd cheered on Riccardo Tessitori, our poor head judge, whose attempts to pronounce Masaladzhiu's last name gradually improved over the weekend. Masaladzhiu had drafted a slow but powerful red-green deck with a splash of black supported by Farseek.

Game 1

Kerem led with a pair of Islands and nothing else. "Mono-blue control?" Masaladzhiu joked. "Almost," replied Kerem, dropping a Forest and a Wind Drake.

Once Masaladzhiu reached five mana, Kerem was in for a surprise though. Mindclaw Shaman took a peek at his hand, and look what he found: Predatory Rampage! Kerem's own sorcery turned against him, turned Spiked Baloth into an 7/5 monster, which in turn turned sideways to wipe all of Kerem's board except for Wind Drake. Quite a turn!

The Drake continued the job of beating down, but its measly 2 points of damage per turn seemed awfully unimpressive when Masaladzhiu summoned Thragtusk. A newly-cast Voidstalker for Kerem first killed Mindclaw Shaman in combat (with the help of Titanic Growth), then took care of Thragtusk, leaving Masaladzhiu with a 3/3 token.

However, Kerem was almost out of gas by now—a lowly Timberpack Wolf was all he could muster—whereas Masaladzhiu was only just beginning: Firewing Phoenix provided him with a veritable airforce of his own and Essence Drain killed Kerem's Drake. 3/3 token and Phoenix soon wrapped up the game.

Masaladzhiu used Elixir of Immortality to hopefully improve his draws, but the game entered a phase were nothing much was happening at all. Masaladzhiu was throroughly (and sorrowfully) flooded, while Kerem was yet waiting for some reforestation.

Masaladzhiu still knew some of the cards in Kerem's hand. One was Sleep which was cast just now. The other was Negate which was cast when Masaladzhiu tried to copy Sleep with Reverberate. The resulting damage (and card draw via Scroll Thief) was too much and soon the score stood at ...

Hannes Kerem 1-1 Roman Masaladzhiu

Game 3

Fresh off a mulligan, Kerem had no plays for the first three turns, while Masaladzhiu did, but didn't really get anywhere with Ring of Valkas followed by Wall of Fire. His Canyon Minotaur looked considerably more interesting as did Kerem's Spiked Baloth. The latter was shot down with Turn to Slag and the Minotaur drew first blood.

The growing Dragon Hatchling brought Kerem to 8 before he found an answer in Voidstalker, and its final attack put him at 3, and soon it was all over. Malasadzhiu summoned Spiked Baloth, all ringed-up and hasty, and delivered the final blow.

Fun fact: All this time, since the beginning of the game, Kerem had been holding Predatory Rampage, but could never use it profitably because of Ring of Valkas.

Hannes Kerem 1-2 Roman Masaladzhiu

Sunday 7:48 p.m. - Top 8 drafting with Luca Casadei

by Frank Karsten

Before the Top 8 started, Antonino de Rosa came up to me to endorse his compatriot Luca Casadei. "He is a good player, he has Pro Tour experience, and he has drafted M13 well over 200 times on Magic Online," Antonino said. That's an incredible number of drafts, especially considering that the set has only been out for a couple of months. I clearly didn't want to pass up the opportunity of watching the draft of a player with that much experience in the format.

After the draft, Luca said that he actually preferred green decks in this format, but he felt that Knight of Infamy was simply a better card than Sentinel Spider. After that first pick, Luca kept taking the best card in the pack all the time. As Pack 1 progressed, Luca began to cement himself in black and blue, although white was still an option.

Looking to his neighbors during the review segment of the draft, I saw that his left neighbor was on Red-Green, while his right neighbor was on Green-White. So staying in Black-Blue would probably be a profitable move.

Luca faced a difficult second pick here: take the Serra Angel and leave the blue, or stay on the blue path by picking the slightly weaker Scroll Thief? Luca chose the latter because he felt that blue was much more open, given his observations from the previous pack.

After that, Luca was basically fixed on blue-black. The second pack provided a nice selection of card draw spells, evasion creatures, and exalted creatures. His deck was shaping up fine, though it was not spectacular.

Another Serra Angel? Luca realized that he could have had two Serra Angels if he had made the switch to white earlier, but now it was too late for that now.

Luca took his time for the second pick. Stuffy Doll did not fit his deck very well and would easily die to the many Crippling Blights that had been going around the table earlier. He still took the Doll over one of the black cards because, after a quick count of the number of playables in the booster, he was hoping that one of the two black evasive creatures would wheel. Unfortunately, neither did.

The third-pick Mutilate was also a tough one, as Servant of Nefarox fit the exalted theme of his deck much better. Nevertheless, he felt that if he drew Mutilate in his opening hand, he would be able to craft a game plan around it.

All in all, Luca was not very happy about his deck, but was still hoping to be able to win some rounds with it.

Semifinals - Petr Kuznetsov vs. Wenzel Krautmann

by Frank Karsten

Having won their respective quarterfinals and the coveted Pro Tour Gatecrash invitation that goes with it, Wenzel Krautmann from Germany (in his third Grand Prix Top 8) and Petr Kuznetsov from Russia (the hometown hero) shuffled up their decks and got down to the match at hand. Wenzel had drafted an excellent red-black deck featuring lots of Goblins and burn, while Petr brought a green-black deck with a red splash to the table.

Game 1

Petr got to play first and cast Ravenous Rats and Ring of Kalonia on turns two and three. (That's not a combo, by the way.) Wenzel, in the meantime, lacked red mana and was unable to cast any of the red spells in his hand. The all-Swamp board of Wenzel still allowed him to play a Liliana's Shade followed by another one, although they quickly fell to Cower in Fear and Public Execution.

As the game developed, Wenzel sat with 7 red cards and 7 Swamps in play, and even had to discard a Torch Fiend at some point because he was unable to play any of his spells. Petr, on the other side of the table, was unable to punish Wenzel for his mana screw, as he was holding a bunch of lands, a useless Plummet, and an Acidic Slime that he was saving for a Mountain.

A Mountain and a Forest off the top meant that Petr could play his Centaur Courser, but it quickly fell to Searing Spear. Wenzel, in the meantime, was not wasting any time: he upped the pressure with two Mogg Flunkies and a Servant of Nefarox. Petr, still struggling with his mulligans, could not muster a defense. A couple short swings later, Wenzel was on to the Finals.

Wenzel Krautmann 2 - Petr Kuznetsov 0

Finals - Luca Casadei vs. Wenzel Krautmann

by Tobi Henke

This was it. One more match before a new champion would be crowned. Both players, German Wenzel Krautmann and Italian Luca Casadei, had just dispatched the last of the Russians in their respective semi finals, to the big disappointment of the audience. Still the finals gathered quite a crowd, slightly undecided who to root for, despite the best efforts of Antonino DeRosa who wanted to draw everyone to the Italian side.

... which somehow only made Casadei gain 9 life, since all the life Krautmann gained through lifelink was immediately subtracted again through Stuffy Doll. Oops. When Casadei added insult to injury, performing a quick Switcheroo on his Kraken Hatchling and the truly monstrous Chronomaton. Krautmann quickly picked up his cards.

"I think, you misplayed that," said Casadei. Krautmann could only agree. "But I don't think I can actually beat that anyway."

Casadei was now down to one Servant of Nefarox as his only nonland permanent, whereas Krautmann replaced his fallen Goblin Battle Jester with a new one and proceeded to create some Goblins. More followed and without an immediate answer, or any answer at all, Casadei quickly moved on to sideboarding.

Luca Casadei 1-1 Wenzel Krautmann

Game 3

Things took a turn to the worse for Krautmann. One mulligan was followed by another, his Swamp was followed by no land at all, and when he finally found another land all he could do with that was to cast Mogg Flunkies—not exactly the best at playing lone wolf.

Meanwhile, Casadei's deck worked beautifully. What had seemed like a clear-cut control deck in the first game revealed itself to be much more aggressive than Krautmann had anticipated. Knight of Infamy, Servant of Nefarox, and Servant of Nefarox delivered some quick beatings.

Perennial favorite Acidic Slime proved itself time and time again over the course of this tournament. All the "flashy stuff"—the Angels, the Dragons—might draw more attention, but a lot more games are won by the small stuff, the gradual accumulation of small advantages. And no card does it better than Acidic Slime, whether it's killing enchantments like Pacifism, artifacts like Primal Clay, or simply lands like, say, Forests or Mountains. Two differnet copies of Acidic Slime did just that in the quarterfinal between Hannes Kerem and Roman Masaladzhiu and in the semifinal between Petr Kuznetsov and Wenzel Krautmann, both times deciding that respective game.

At the final outing of the M13 Limited format, among other things, players tried to settle the question: What is the most unfair bomb in the set? The field was soon narrowed down to either Krenko, Mob Boss or Sublime Archangel, but the debate about these two was still going on long after the last cards had been slung. Both creatures come down early and they come down hard on players who're not prepared to deal with them instantly. What's more, both are impervious to Pacifism, one of the more common removal spells, especially in Sealed where white decks seem to be everywhere. Vitaly Grechishkin, for example, had the help of two Sublime Archangels when he went 9-0 on day one. Krenko, Mob Boss on the other hand made it all the way to the final, where it won one game for Wenzel Krautmann against eventual champion Luca Casadei. It should be noted, however, that while the Archangel and the Boss may be the champion's of their respective teams, neither one wins all by itself. They are team players, after all.